and the darkness, it falls
by The Freaky Butt Mate
Summary: Four very different friends. One must fall to the dark. One will perish. One will be lost. And the last will try to cling to the unravelling edges. But it will be too late...


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**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or his magical world. They belong to J.K Rowlings. If I _did_ own his world, the pretty Sirius would not have died. But, in any case, Paige, Coel, Oscar, Adeline and all relating characters belong to me.

I would also now like it noted that this story will be somewhat mature. There will be swearing and sexual references, both straight and gay. Because I'm cool like that.

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**and** **the darkness, it falls**

**- - - -**

**Rowena's Quartet**

Ever since the day she was born, Paige Cornfoot knew that she was a witch.

There was not a Cornfoot who was surprised to hear that when she was placed into her tired mother's arms, she immediately began blowing bubbles – big, blue bubbles, small purple bubbles, and a jet stream of bronze ones, too. It was, some people would say, a Cornfoot trademark to give birth to a bubbly baby – some would even go on to say that it had something to do with being related to Rowena Ravenclaw herself. Apparently, the brother of a wife of a son of a great aunt of an uncle-in-law of a second cousin three times removed was married to the great-great-great-great-great grand niece of Rowena Ravenclaw, or so the family tree said. And the family tree was known to make things up when it wanted to.

In any case, Marvin and Henrietta were proud of their daughter, who could walk before she could crawl, and read her first book at the age of two, mutely pointing out the pictures to her newborn brother Pascal. However, they grew worried when she hadn't said a word by the age of five – they took her to all the best wizarding doctors galleons could buy, but whatever they did, they could find nothing wrong with her.

All that worrying turned out to be for nothing, though, when one day while playing with her friend Coel MacDougal, she turned to him and simply said, "Please stop hitting me, or I _will_ set the cat on you, and I'll tell my mummy never to tell you the story about the Boy Who Lived ever again." (For, dear reader, their favourite story was about a young boy who survived a horrible spell, vanquished an evil lord, and was left with a scar shaped like a lightning bolt.)

Needless to say, her family rejoiced to finally hear Paige speak, and five-year-old Coel did as he was told, being quite terrified of the Cornfoot's rather large tawny cat, Kit.

While Paige was born to parents who were both of the magical kind, her best friend Coel was not. His father Kellar was a wizard, and very good friends with Marvin and Henrietta – in fact, he had gone to the same school was them, Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry of course, and had been in the same classes as them throughout. However, he had a great love for the muggle world, so much that he married a muggle woman. She was not fazed by the fact that her husband and his best friends could use magic – in fact, it was told that Kellar's pick up line was, "Pull this finger, and I'll make a snake appear in your skirt," which he did, both magically and… well... Either way, Carrie loved the fact that she was married to a man who could do all the housework for her with the wave of his wand – that is, when he felt like it.

From a young age, everyone knew that Coel was a bright boy. Unlike Paige, he began talking at the age of three, and once he started, he would never shut up. He fired question after question – there was no amount of answers that could ever truly satisfy his curiosity. What made the sky blue? Will you teach me how to fly on the broomstick? Why doesn't Paige ever talk? Where did Cormac (his little brother, who was born at around the same time as Paige's little brother) come from? Why do I have this and why doesn't Paige have one?

If someone could not give him an answer, he would set out to figure it out himself. This level of independence at the tender age of six lead him into quite a lot of trouble, and it was on one of these occasions that they discovered that he had indeed received the magical gene. He had been trying to see if the Cornfoot's cat Kit liked heights, and had been hanging her by the tail out of Paige's large attic window, when the cat screeched and attacked him. This, unsurprisingly, startled him, and he let go of the cat – who landed safely on the roof outside, gave a miffed 'meow', and stalked away – and fell out of the window. Paige's scream alerted the parents, who came rushing up immediately – only to find Coel bouncing down along the long slanted roof, and onto the ground, where he landed, looked around, stood up, and waved at everyone staring down at him.

"Can I do that again?" He cried, just as his father Apparated down next to him and picked him up in a huge embrace.

"Yes, Coel, yes, as many times as you want!" Kellar replied, hoisting his son up onto his shoulders and bouncing back into the house.

Needless to say, like their parents, Paige and Coel were the best of friends, and there was hardly a moment when they would be out of each others' sight. Where one would go, the other would follow – it was joked that they even went to the toilet together, which was not true, as Paige tended to get angry every time Coel tried to follow her into the bathroom. Paige was lucky enough to have a fireplace in her room – her house, you see, was not a house, but a manor, passed down over the generations of Cornfoots – and whenever Coel would get into trouble at his house (which, for the record, was quite often), he would simply use Floo-Powder and arrive in Paige's bedroom, where she would promptly reprimand him and tell him to go apologise to his parents. And funnily enough, he did, every single time.

When they both got their owls informing them of their acceptance into Hogwarts, they told each other first, Coel arriving in Paige's bedroom before she had a chance to grab her box of Floo, and for the next ten minutes, they bounced around the room together, shouting "We're in, we're in, we're in!"

This woke Paige's parents and little brother Pascal, who all arrived to congratulate the two. It didn't take long for Kellar, Carrie and Cormac to arrive as well, and in celebration, the mothers cooked up a big feast.

Several weeks later, Paige and Coel, accompanied by Kellar and Marvin, ventured over to Diagon Alley to buy all their equipment for school. Kellar somehow managed to convince Marvin to travel to London via the Underground – something Marvin had never experienced before. It was here, as they were climbing from the train and onto the platform, that they heard an interesting conversation.

"How are we ever going to find a street full of magical items in _London?_ A wand? A cauldron? These _books_?"

"Trust me, Daddy, we'll find them _somewhere…_"

These voices turned out to be a muggle man dressed in slacks and loafers, and a girl the same age as Paige and Coel. The girl was quite pretty, with curly black hair and dark eyes which twinkled with mischief. She clung to her father's hand as she bounced along the station, almost dragging him along.

"Excuse me," Mr MacDougal called after them. The two stopped and turned around. "I couldn't help but overhear… Was your daughter accepted into Hogwarts, by any chance?"

The man boggled, while the girl beamed.

"I _told_ you, Daddy, I _told_ you!" She cried.

This girl turned out to be named Adeline von Croy. She was muggle-born, through and through – however her family, apparently, were quite famous for producing bishops, knights, cardinals, field-marshals, generals and several members of royalty, so it wasn't entirely unusual for a witch to finally be born into the family. Her father Ernest was a very skilled doctor, made famous for discovering the cure for something-or-other, while her mother Deirdre happened to be the lead singer of an indie female-rock band called _Screechin_' _Cats._ Where Adeline's father was quite the 'square', as she put it, she and her mother were eccentric, her mother enjoying strange hair colours, while Adeline herself enjoyed clothing which most would call '…interesting…?'

Adeline had always known she was different to other children – it was just something she had always felt. It became even more apparent when she was forced to stay with her evil old aunt Beatrice, who, appalled by her horrendous hair colour (at the time, it had been dyed a luminous green which glowed in the dark), promptly washed poor Adeline's hair in bleach. What came of it was a peroxide-blonde little girl, who was not very happy at all. And yet, when she woke up the next morning, she found that her hair had in fact changed back to the luminous shade of green she loved – much to Aunt Beatrice's distaste.

However, that was not the end of it. It turned out, according to Adeline's acceptance letter, that she was also what was called a Metamorphmagus, and that she would require special tutoring lessons once she started school, in order to control her gift. Coel and Paige, who learnt all of this as they walked in the direction of Diagon Alley, found this most interesting. Being raised in magical families, they both knew what a Metamorphmagus was – however, they had never _met_ one in real life.

After wowing Adeline and her father with the entrance to Diagon Alley through the back of the Leaky Cauldron, and showing them the vast halls of the wizarding bank Gringotts so that Mr von Croy could exchange his Muggle money for Knuts, Sickels and Galleons, the three families went about buying their equipment – school robes at Madam Malkins, books at Flourish and Blotts, cauldrons at the cauldron shop and other supplies at the apothecary. Paige had to chide Coel several times for trying to convince Adeline that certain items such as newt eyes were actually a wizarding delicacy, and that many people ate them as a treat (funnily enough, Adeline believed him).

They bought their wands next – Paige's was eleven inches, made of birch, swishy, with a phoenix feather core; Coel's fourteen inches, yew, rigid, with a dragon heartstring; while Adeline's was twelve inches, rowan, very pliable, with a unicorn hair at its core. As they stepped out of Ollivanders and back out into the street, Adeline bounced along, brandishing her newly-purchased wand.

"Paige, Paige, tell me a spell!" She demanded, almost imperiously so. Paige smiled apologetically, but it was Marvin who answered her by telling her that she wasn't allowed to do magic outside of school until she was seventeen. Adeline pouted heavily, and put her wand away, though she stared at the box longingly, looking as if she was going to reach in and grab it again at any moment anyway.

Coel, meanwhile, was looking closely at his acceptance letter, his dark brows furrowed deeply.

"Aw, Dad!" He cried, "it says first years aren't allowed broomsticks!"

"Really," Kellar asked, reading over his son's shoulder. "Well, that's a shame, I was going to buy you one-"

"_Really!_ Paige, did you hear that, Dad's gonna buy me my own broomstick!" (To which Adeline cried, "What, you wizards and witches actually use _broomsticks_?")

"-so I guess I'll just get you a pet instead," Kellar finished. Coel looked crestfallen.

"But Dad!" He whined, tugging at his father's sleeve, "I _really, really, really_ want a broomstick!"

"Well, you can't have both," Kellar told him reasonably.

"But – but-!"

"Choose."

Five minutes later, the six found themselves inside the Magical Menagerie amidst a cloud of strange sounds and smells. Coel looked particularly sulky – he had asked for a broomstick, was promptly told that he would have to wait for next year (though Paige overheard Mr. MacDougal tell her own father that he would actually buy Coel a broomstick for his birthday in April).

Either way, Paige ended up attracting a small, grey-and-black stripped kitten with white 'socks', and at once found herself attached to the little fur ball – mainly because it had dug its claws into her sleeve and refused to let go. She only had to remind her father that it would be her birthday in a few days time, and he gave in and bought the cat.

Adeline, meanwhile, had found herself staring into a cage that seemed empty except for the ball of whitish fur hidden partly underneath some shredded newspaper. She pressed her face against the cage, eyes wide.

"Excuse me," she called to a nearby assistant, who turned around, his hands tangled up with a large albino snake, which was slowly wrapping itself around his neck.

"Ferret!" The assistant cried, his face going purple as he tried to wrestle the snake into its own cage, "rather intelligent creature, that one is!"

Leaving the man with his snake, Adeline turned back to the cage to find a small black-and-white face peering back at her with beady black eyes.

"Daddy!" She squealed, watching as the ferret crept towards the front of the cage, its little nose twitching.

…when they left the shop some ten minutes later, both Paige and Adeline were clutching their brand new pets. Paige, cradling her little kitten in her arms and scratching it behind its ears, promptly said, "His name shall be Socks."

"Beppo!" Adeline cried, holding her new ferret at arms-length and twirling around –

- only to crash into a small reddish-haired boy, who had been holding onto a cage with an owl sitting in it. Miraculously, both children managed to keep hold of their pets, though Beppo the ferret did almost make a scamper for freedom, Adeline only just managing to hold him by the tips of her fingers.

"Oh gosh!" Adeline gushed, scrambling to her feet and tucking Beppo neatly under her arm, before helping the small boy to his feet. "I'm _so_ sorry, I didn't see you there, are you all right?"

"That's okay," the boy said, dusting off his pants and picking up his cage. He had a soft, shy sort of voice, and when the others came to see if the two were all right, he promptly looked to the ground, going bright red. He was a cute sort of boy, with reddish-brown hair and freckles, and a pair of glasses which seemed much too large for his small face, as they were falling off the end of his snub-nose.

"My name's Adeline!" Adeline said happily, smiling brightly, "and this is Coel and Paige and their dads, and this is my daddy right here, and what's your name? Are you a wizard too? Are you going to Hogwarts as well?"

The small boy was obviously not used to being asked so many questions at the same time, and so was backing away slightly, looking at a spot just below Adeline's feet, as if he were afraid to look at her. Before he was able to answer, however, a voice rang over the hubbub of Diagon Alley, ringing sharply –

"_Oscar!"_ came the shrill voice. The boy – obviously Oscar – cringed visibly, and turned around slightly.

"Yes, mother?" He called back, just as a tall, stern, handsome woman swept into view. She looked absolutely thunderous.

"Where have you been! Always in trouble, you are, never listening to a word I say…" She paused, having seen the three other children and their parents. Paige felt the woman taking in their Muggle clothes, mostly Mr von Croy's, who looked as Muggle-ish as one could get. The woman sneered, particularly at Kellar and Marvin. "Come along, Oscar," she hissed, then, grabbing the boy by his collar, she dragged him away. He looked over his shoulder quickly, his eyes wide – and then he and his mother disappeared from view.

Marvin shook his head slightly, sending Ernest an apologetic look.

"Martha Parkinson never did like Kellar and me much," he said, as if that explained everything.

Funnily enough, that was not the last they were to see of Oscar Parkinson. Almost a month later, as the three – who had travelled on the Hogwarts Express together, Adeline jumping on Coel and Paige as soon as she saw them – were walking past the large doors leading to the Great Hall on their way to be Sorted, Coel spotted the small boy and pointed him out.

"Look, there's that kid we saw at Diagon Alley!"

Moments later, Adeline had tackled him, and seemed to refuse to let go. A pair of stocky red-headed twins behind them 'ooohed', one of them saying "Love is in the air already, George!"

The first-years were Sorted, a hat simply being placed on their heads and yelling out a house. To Paige's immense surprise – well, not really – the Hat called out 'Ravenclaw' before it even touched her blonde hair, and she calmly made her way over to the cheering table of purple and bronze, smiling slightly. A few minutes later, Adeline and Beppo (who had been sitting on his owner's shoulder) joined her – the Hat, you see, had taken several long minutes trying to decide where she would go, and had finally decided on Ravenclaw. Not long after, Coel joined them, sitting on the other side of Paige and grinning broadly.

When Oscar sat down on the little stool and had the Sorting Hat placed over his hair, the only reason he didn't disappear under it completely was because of his large glasses. However, it didn't take long for him to be slipping into the seat opposite the other three. He smiled shyly, though he looked a little uneasy.

"I guess I'm stuck with you," he said simply.

The next morning, he received a Howler from his parents. Adeline was quite intrigued by the little red envelope, but before he gave anyone a chance to hear it, Oscar ran from the Great Hall so that all could be heard was a faint woman's yelling, something about being a 'disgrace to the family'… Oscar carefully avoided the others' eyes when he returned.

That first year was the best year. Paige quickly built a reputation for being a very gifted young witch, while Coel managed to charm most teachers – even somehow becoming a sort-of favourite of the Potions master, Professor Snape, because of his skill and extensive knowledge of potions and plants. Adeline received her Metamorphmagus lessons with Professor McGonagall and a sixth-year girl named Nymphadora Tonks, also a Metamorphmagus. Because of this, Adeline proved to be quite talented with Transfiguration, and was often scoring Ravenclaw points in class. Oscar, surprisingly, was quite good with Defence Against the Dark Arts, though he never really explained how he knew so much about the subject.

The next year was just as fun. Adeline was still doing her private lessons, while Paige continued to receive top marks in most subjects. The only two subjects she would not come first in were Potions and DADA – which were taken by Coel and Oscar respectively. Coel, in the meantime, managed to score a spot on Ravenclaw's Quidditch team, and was quite the catch. He played as Keeper, zooming from one post to another on his new broomstick.

It was in their third year that things began to get interesting. Not only was it the year that both Paige and Coel's little brothers, Pascal and Cormac, started school, there was also someone else. Someone famous. The whispers on the Hogwarts Express were what alerted them to the fact that something was different.

"He's on the train," someone has whispered.

"Who?"

"_Him._"

"Him?"

"The Boy Who Lived!"

"_HIM!"_

"Yeah, he's in one of the last carriages!"

"Really!"

"Ya really!"

They got their first look of the Boy Who Lived when it came time for the Sorting. There had been a ripple of excitement at his name – many standing in their seats to get a good look at him, including Adeline, who had jumped up onto the table to get the best view. The small, dark-haired boy was walking towards the stool, eyes downcast. Paige and Coel exchanged excited glances – for, if you can recall, Harry Potter had been their idol when they were children.

As the Sorting Hat was placed over the boy's eyes, Adeline sat back down between Oscar and Coel with a huff.

"He's not _that_ good looking," she sniffed, then smiled slyly, eyeing another third-year sitting nearby. "That Cedric Diggory, on the other hand…"

As mentioned before, the third-year was when things began to get interesting. It was in this year that Adeline and various male companions tended to be caught in rather suggestive positions, while Coel found himself attracting attention from quite a few of the girls in their year. Oscar, meanwhile, began to distance himself from the others, hiding especially when he saw girls hanging around Coel. Paige did everything she could to find out why he acted like he did, but it wasn't until halfway through their fourth year did he finally confide in her.

"I… think I like Coel…" he whispered, the look on his face suggesting that he was horrified he was speaking those words. And then he broke down into tears. It didn't take long for Paige to convince Oscar to tell for – for he had already told Adeline, who he was closer to – and surprisingly enough, Coel didn't take it badly. Indeed, Coel did tell Oscar that he was in no way interested in him, however he was as supportive as a good friend could be.

In the meantime, Muggle-borns were being attacked by the mysterious heir of Slytherin, to the point where there were rumours that the school was going to be closed. Because of this, Paige, Coel and Oscar were adamant in trying to keep Adeline protected – however she had other ideas. Standing up onto the table one rainy breakfast, she loudly proclaimed that if she 'ever caught that bleeping bleepbleep, she would bleep the bleep out of his bleep and shove it up his bleeping bleep.' This earned her both a weeks' worth of detentions, and a round of applause. Funnily enough, the attacked stopped a few weeks later. Adeline liked to think that it was her outburst that had stopped the heir. The other three exhausted themselves trying to convince her otherwise.

The fifth year passed almost too quickly, a blur of lessons, botched relationships, a fight or two between Coel and Adeline, their ever important OWL exams and an escaped Azkaban prisoner. Nothing too big.

Their sixth year was a heap load of homework and awe – the Triwizard Tournament was held at Hogwarts that year. Both Coel and Adeline entered their names into the Goblet of Fire, yet neither of their names were pulled from the cup. They spent the rest of the year watching as the Champions battled through their Tasks – against dragons and Merpeople, and each other in the maze. Coel developed a minor crush on the French beauty Fleur Delacour, while Adeline and Oscar both fawned over Krum and Cedric (thought Adeline once told Coel that she wouldn't mind sleeping with Fleur, even just once). Paige had to put up with all of this, all the while providing the others with notes and making sure their homework was correct.

It was an event that occurred at the end of the year that marked the beginning of change. An event that none of them would ever forget. For how could they forget the image of Harry Potter reappearing out of nowhere, Triwizard Cup held firmly in one hand, while the other was clutching the form of Cedric Diggory?

The still form.

The dead form.

"_They say You-Know-Who is back…"_

Yet the students were not allowed time to discuss this turn of events, to hear the whole truth – only days later they were packed up and sent home on the train.

Adeline cried in the privacy of a carriage on the Hogwarts Express, but she gathered her wits about herself and instead took to changing the shape of her hands – she had once gone out with Cedric, though her definition of 'gone out' usually meant a dark, unused classroom after hours. The others, however, remained quite.

When they parted ways at Platform 9 ¾ , Adeline's distress had disappeared altogether, and she was one of the only students who smiled as they left for the holidays – and then she disappeared, off to catch another train, back towards her own hometown, Beppo curled up on her shoulder. Coel, Paige and Oscar were picked up by Paige's thin, intimidating mother Henrietta. Oscar had asked to stay with Coel over the holidays – he had mumbled something quickly about his parents, and nothing more was said on the subject.

Over the warm summer, stories discrediting Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore flooded the Daily Prophet. It got to the point that when an owl came to deliver the paper, Henrietta Cornfoot would scowl and chase it away with a broom.

"I refuse to support a paper which would say such things about Dumbledore – and Lily's son," she explained to the dumbfounded Paige with a sniff – she had known Lily Potter, then Lily Evans, back at school. "She was a beautiful girl, Lily was – can't say much about that James, but all that aside, you couldn't find a more talented couple…"

Those holidays passed quickly, Paige, Coel and Oscar going on Muggle-shopping ventures (which quite amazed Oscar, who found Muggle life fascinating) and receiving owls from Adeline. The last member of their quartet had gone overseas for the holidays and, being an avid photographer who had bought an old camera which would work anywhere and take moving photos, would send the others photographs of her adventures.

Paige celebrated her seventeenth birthday over the break, finally a legal witch (an age which Oscar and Coel had already achieved) and soon took her Apparition test and passed (a feat which Oscar and Coel had _also_ already achieved).

It was only a few weeks later when they had to return back to the Hogwarts Express. They farewelled their parents at Platform 9 ¾, Carrie MacDougal and Henrietta Cornfoot fussing over Oscar more than their own children (for Oscar was, in fact, a very charming lad, and had grown to become quite handsome, if he did say so himself) and then they climbed onto the waiting train, dragging trunks, cages with owls, broomsticks, cats and all.

As soon as they stepped onto the train they were bowled over by Adeline, who was sporting an extremely short blue haircut which got quite a few stares, as well as a dark tan. That was how their final year at school was to being – their last year, the year of the NEWTs. They did not know what adventures were waiting for them, what surprises they would find –

"_Oscar!_" a shrill voice cried, making Oscar's quill jolt violently. Adeline flopped down onto the seat next to him, a handful of chocolate frogs in one hand and wrapping her other arm around his neck. An ancient camera hung around her neck, as well as large headphones, connected to a walkman which was blaring away. "What'cha writin'?"

"Nothing," Oscar said hurriedly, slamming his diary and shoving it into his open trunk. "Pass me a frog, would you?"

"Don't you have prefect duties?" Coel asked from the corner of the carriage, breaking a pumpkin pastry in half and handing one to his current girlfriend, a sixth-year named Marietta. Oscar pulled a face.

"Ha! Paige is gonna _slaughter_ you!" Adeline cried, grinning broadly, then pouted as her music suddenly stopped working. "Damn. It stopped working again. Stupid magic."

"Speaking of the devil…" Coel murmured, just as the door slid opened and their blonde-haired, bespectacled friend slipped into the cabin. Before Oscar had a chance to open his mouth to explain his absence, Paige just smiled and down. Socks, who had been sitting on Paige's trunk, jumped easily into her lap.

"Don't worry, I got the fifth years to do it," she explained, reaching over and grabbing a frog from the pile sitting next to Adeline. "So, Addy – you were telling us about America, remember?"

Adeline happily launched back into her story about her trip to America with her mother – whose band were touring – and described in full detail about how she _swore_ she slept with two guys and a girl from a support band. Meanwhile, Oscar leaned on the window, his forehead pressed against the glass. The landscape zoomed passed, the world beginning to darken. His mind was racing – thinking. Their last year…

"-oh, and Oscar, I made a friend, he's gay, you'd _love_ him, he's Muggle but I'm sure you won't mind that, I've got a photo of him somewhere, and his address, oh, and I've got something else to show you, I've been working on it all summer just for you…"

Coel had gone back to canoodling with Marietta, while Paige listened to Adeline, smiling slightly and shaking her head in bemusement at her friend's enthusiasm.

And so their last year began – it had started so _happy_…


End file.
